Running an s4 on a budget........

[e12-mat]

Right firstly before you have a heart attack let me clarify what I mean.

Im engineering student in my final year masters doing a 6 months project in Modena, Italy, working with Ferrari gearbox resonance problems. When i come back to the UK in June I will be looking to purchase an s4.

I have worked at garages for many years prior to university and have access to a fully equipped workshop so I will do all the work on the car myself. But I can only afford to spend about 6-7k on the car and then approx 1k a year on maintenance parts. My question to you gentlemen, is it possible to do this because the s4 will probably have in excess of 100,000 miles so items like turbo’s and bushes will be starting to show their age. Fuel consumption doesn’t bother in particular because it would only be used at weekends.

Sorry for long post thanks for your help.

[MarkB]

Welcome to the forum.

If you are lucky and nothing major goes wrong you'll be fine. Any larger items failing and you'll soon use up a grand.

[e12-mat]

When you say major items, what do mean? what do the turbo's cost on these I have been trying to find out but nobody would give me a price without calling and its a bit pricey to call uk from here.

[GrahamS4]

Looking at what I spend, I'd say most is labour. If I was as mechanically able as you with access to facilities as you have I'd say your budget sounds ok, so long as consumables like tyres and brakes are excluded.

[bobbler]

A set of tyres you are looking at £120+ a corner for rubber even on standard 17's, and if doing average-ish miles thats a set a year and half your budget.
If you are looking after it yourself then you can knock the annual service on the head easily enough - probably £120 - £300 depending on which one it is. You still need a few parts etc for it, I worked out the last one I had done the parts cost all but about £30 of the service cost from my local indy.
Set of full (poly) bushes is around £250 as a one off cost.

Fuel is the main issue I find, as you cannot just get by without it LOL. £60 a tank and depending how heavy your foot is it might not last long

[dazzer]

When you say major items, what do mean? what do the turbo's cost on these I have been trying to find out but nobody would give me a price without calling and its a bit pricey to call uk from here.

Straight replacement K03s are approx £600 each. Suspension arms are the other PIA so get one that's had them sorted.

[rikrose]

I had braking issues. They run into "non-cheap" too. I paid for someone to get in and fit ECS Tuning's Stage 4 Front and Stage 1 Rear kits. That set me back 2k5. Make sure you don't buy one that lives near the sea. I've spent money on correcting corrosion issues with the brakes, exhaust, etc...

[t5]

YOU BE ROBBING POST OFFICE SOON 2 FUND U CAR U START OFF STANDED THEN U CHIP IT N SO ETC HA HA